As long as we don’t live in a cave, it has been difficult not find out about the multimillion-dollar movement that took place this January 18 in the video game industry. Microsoft, in an unprecedented deal, closed the purchase of Activision for almost 70,000 million dollars, something that translates into more than 60,000 million euros. This information has shaken the entire world, shooting up the shares of Microsoft and Activision and plummeting those of Sony. And it is that, with reason, important doubts arise about this purchase, such as the risk of monopoly if the United States ratifies that purchase or, of course, if Activision titles will stop coming to other platforms.
The doubts that assail people grow, moreover, if one takes into account the bethesda trend, whose flagship games, such as Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI, are already known to come exclusively to Xbox and PC. But nevertheless, Microsoft has made reassuring statements about it, since Phil Spencer has personally been the one who has said the following: “I want to say to the players that we have no intention of taking the communities out of other platforms and we are committed to that”, making it clear that, although there may be exclusive titles, many franchises will continue to be maintained at the multiplatform level.
Indeed, it may be reassuring to more than one that Phil Spencer makes that statement, but it should also be remembered that with Bethesda there were similar statements and, lately, we can see several titles that will not leave the Xbox ecosystem like the ones mentioned above. Therefore, sooner or later, the player who has a broad interest in Activision titles will have to get an Xbox Series X or Series S if you don’t want to miss out on great titles of this company in the process of cleaning.
A purchase that changes the board
In this way, Xbox makes clear Microsoft’s commitment to video games in general and its Xbox Game Pass in particular, throwing more money on the board than any of its competitors could spend. It’s pretty clear that this purchase will skyrocket Xbox sales, and if Sony doesn’t make a big splash soon, we could be in for the first sales upset for Microsoft’s console since the commercial success of the Xbox 360.
This move will improve Xbox’s quality of service and force Sony to keep improving theirs, but Microsoft’s financial muscle puts the free video game market at risk in the long term, so we will have to be very attentive to the next events.